The 11-year collaboration between Hitchcock and Herrmann is often called the greatest director-composer partnership in cinema history. Their films together include Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, and Psycho. Steven C. Smith’s book delivers an intimate account of how the reserved, but deeply anxious, Hitchcock found his ideal creative partner in the cantankerous, but deeply romantic, Herrmann. Smith draws on previously unpublished documents and new interviews, to deliver a riveting account of what made the teaming of “Benny and Hitch” so memorable and influential–and why it came to a bitter end.

Their story involves the tumultuous changes in Hollywood from the mid-1950s to mid-1960s, as the collapsing studio system gave way to independent filmmaking. It also involves key figures in Hitchcock and Herrmann’s inner circle, including the director’s wife and most valued critic, Alma Reville; Herrmann’s put-upon spouse, Lucy Anderson; and talent agent-turned-studio mogul Lew Wasserman. Over time, Wasserman’s commercial instincts as head of Universal Studios clashed with Herrmann’s pure artistic vision.

Hitchcock and Herrmann delivers a fast-moving, cinematic narrative–one that puts readers on the film sets and scoring stages of Hitchcock masterworks. Today, the music from these movies is more popular than ever, heard in Quentin Tarantino blockbusters and Lady Gaga music videos. In Smith’s expert telling, readers are given an intimate look at two legendary creators who, despite seemingly opposite personalities, found in each other artistic completion.